The present disclosure generally relates to a method of reclaiming discarded solid state devices, an apparatus for effecting the same, a memory chip controller configured to effect the same, and memory chips configured to effect the same.
Solid state electronic devices are of increasing importance in technology applications. Solid state electronic devices are found in virtually every electronic appliance. An undesired characteristic often affecting solid state technologies is that they are prone to degradation with time and use. Such degradation, and natural obsolescence due to Moore's law leads to discarding of such devices. No known solution for reducing such discarded solid state devices or systems exist.
For example, NAND/NOR flash solid state memory devices have already established a significant presence in consumer applications requiring non-volatile data storage. Flash memory devices as well as other emerging solid state memory devices (such as phase-change memory devices) are now on the verge of effecting a remarkable remake of the memory and storage subsystems in enterprise and consumer computing applications due to such features as reduced latency, reduced power consumption, higher density, and enhanced persistence.
A fundamental constraint that frequently arises in the usage of such memory devices is the limited endurance of such solid state memory devices. For example, latest NAND flash memory devices have an endurance specification of only 3,000-5,000 read and write cycles. Further, the number of read and write cycles in the endurance specification has been decreasing in latest technology generations employing smaller feature sizes.
Once a memory device has been cycled to a specified endurance limit, the memory device is treated as potentially unusable, and is commonly discarded. Such a memory device is typically physically removed from the system to avoid degradation of system performance. The discarded memory device can be replaced with a new memory device designed to perform the same function as the discarded memory device.
Solid-state devices may be discarded for other reasons as well. Surplus inventory including non-defective solid state devices that remain unsold for a commercially unacceptable time may be discarded as obsolete. Discarding such devices for any of the aforementioned reasons adds to a large quantity of potentially toxic electronic waste materials. The environmental hazard of such electronic waste materials has been globally recognized. While one way of reducing such waste materials is to recycle components of such devices, this process is generally destructive, and costs power and money.